Mosquito killer

Rio de Janeiro – A billboard is just a billboard, until it saves a life, which is what the Mosquito Killer Billboard is attempting to do in Brazil.

• The billboard was designed to mimic the properties of human skin to attract mosquitoes
• Mosquitoes in the region carry dangerous diseases such as zika, dengue fever and chikungunya

Created by two Brazilian advertising agencies Posterscope and NBS, in response to the World Health Organization’s announcement that zika was a global emergency, the billboard is designed to attract and kill mosquitoes, a common carrier of the virus. The billboard uses the biological principles that attract mosquitoes to mammals – the emission of carbon dioxide and a lactic acid-laced mist that mimics the smell of sweat, as well as fluorescent lighting to lure and trap the insects. The makers say the poster can attract mosquitoes from as far away as 2.5km.

More importantly, Posterscope and NBS have released the technical details of the billboard, suggesting that people could make it themselves for a few thousand reals (R1,000 = £194, $284). ‘It’s impressive how many mosquitoes you can trap and how many lives you can save with this idea,’ Otto Frossard from Posterscope told the BBC.